Mendocino College Library Reading Reviews

This is a blog for Mendocino College Library that welcomes reviews of books, announces news about author readings at the college, and more. Watch for Litfest on June 1-2 2007. Over 25 poets, novelists, and nonfiction writers will be doing panels, readings and writing workshops.

Monday, November 12, 2007

If you live anywhere north of San Francisco along Highway 101 and missed the Roy Kesey reading at Mendocino College, you will have to wait until spring of 2009 to see him again. He's at work on an historical novel about Peru.

In the meantime, if you have not gotten a copy of All Over, his short story collection, you will want to, because it delights, amuses, and even challenges the boundaries of fiction. During his reading at the college, he read only two stories, but that took over half an hour, and his Q&A took over another half an hour. Reading from "Interview," a story that has answers, but no questions, Kesey had the audience laughing at the way the narrator reveals his life and qualifications for a job. Needless to say, it is no ordinary job interview.

Another story that demonstrates Kesey's keen sense of humor and wit is "Hat," a story that can pass as a Zen fable or a metaphor for higher education. Either way, it is biting, funny, and revelatory.

Stephen King selected "Wait" for Best American Short Stories 2007, and it delivers in a Theater of the Absurd way as we witness the wait in an airport terminal. For anyone traveling with flight delays in contemporary times, its satire is not lost, and neither is its bittersweet resolution.

But Kesey's collection keeps one off-balance by the way it gives us the unexpected. We meet revolutionaries, a director with a dead lead actor, a therapist who doesn't want to give up his patient, a cop, dead cows, and a host of other oddball and yet ordinary things that keep us turning the pages. My personal favorites beyond the three titles already mentioned are: "Loess," "Martin," "[Exeunt," "Instituto," "Cheese," "Follow the Money," and "Triangulation."

A new voice in the world of fiction is always exciting. It will be fun to see how Kesey treats Peru in his upcoming novel. We'll look forward to hosting him again in 2009, or sooner should he decide to come back in 2008.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The Friends of the Mendocino College Library are hosting a reading by author Roy Kesey on Thursday, November 8, in room 5310 in the Center for the Visual & Performing Arts on the Ukiah campus. Kesey grew up in Ukiah, and now lives in Beijing with his wife and children. His fiction, nonfiction and poetry have appeared in more than sixty magazines, including McSweeney’s, The Georgia Review and The Iowa Review, and in several anthologies including The Future Dictionary of America, New Sudden Fiction, and The Robert Olen Butler Prize Anthology. His short story "Wait" is included in Best American Short Stories 2007 which was edited by Stephen King. He’s also the author of a historical travel guide to the city of Nanjing, a novella called Nothing in the World, and his recent collection of short stories called All Over is to be published on October 23rd.

Hailed as one of our bright young authors, Kesey will be reading at Mendocino College and do a book signing following the reading. Mendocino Book Company will be on hand with copies of his work for those who wish to get copies autographed. For more information regarding the reading, please visit http://www.mendocino.edu/ or call John Koetzner at (707) 468-3051. The Friends of the Mendocino College Library is an affiliate group of the Mendocino College Foundation and it is entering its fourth year of support for readings by authors.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Friends of the Mendocino College Library are sponsoring a reading and book signing by novelist and essayist, Valerie Miner, at the Mendocino College Little Theatre on Thursday, April 19th at 7:30 PM.

This event is free to the public. Valerie Miner is the award-winning author of twelve books. Her forthcoming novel, After Eden, will be published in the "Literature of the American West Series" by the University of Oklahoma Press in Spring, 2007. Other novels include Range of Light , A Walking Fire, Winter's Edge, Blood Sisters, All Good Women, Movement: A Novel in Stories, and Murder in the English Department. Her short fiction books include Abundant Light, The Night Singers and Trespassing. Her collection of essays is Rumors from the Cauldron: Selected Essays, Reviews and Reportage. In 2002, The Low Road: A Scottish Family Memoir was a Finalist for the PEN USA Creative Non-Fiction Award. Abundant Light was a 2005 Fiction Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.

Valerie Miner's work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Salmagundi, New Letters, Ploughshares, The Village Voice, Prairie Schooner, The Gettysburg Review, Conditions, The T.L.S., The Women's Review of Books, The Nation and other journals. Her stories and essays are published in more than sixty anthologies. Her collaborative work includes books, museum exhibits as well as theatre. A number of her pieces have been dramatized on BBC Radio 4. She has won fellowships and awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The NEA, The Jerome Foundation, The Heinz Foundation, The Australia Council Literary Arts Board and numerous other sources.

She has had Fulbright Fellowships to Tunisia and India.Winner of a Distinguished Teaching Award, she has taught for over twenty-five years and is now an artist-in-residence and professor at Stanford University. She travels internationally giving readings, lectures and workshops. She and her partner live in San Francisco and Mendocino County, California, where they have had a cabin for 25 years. For more information regarding the author, visit: http://www.valerieminer.com/ . This reading is just one of the literary events this spring sponsored by the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, an affiliate group of the Mendocino College Foundation. The college is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Rd in Ukiah. For more information, visit www.mendocino.edu or call (707) 468-3051.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

I've always enjoyed Billy Crystal's humor, and I had missed his one-man show of the same name when it came through San Francisco last year. So, what inspired me to pick up this book? I was on my way to a conference and saw that it was probably a quick read. Indeed, it was a quick read.

The 700 Sundays that the title refers to are the number of Sundays that Crystal got to spend with his father before his father's death. It's a family memoir that is funny and provides some insight into what made Billy Crystal, Billy Crystal. It shows us his brothers, his mother, aunts, and uncles. We learn how his family was part of the legendary jazz movement in America, launching the Commodore Records label. At times, there are lines that are a bit gross, but Crystal keeps it all in good taste, focusing on his love for his family.

This book won't go down as one of the great memoirs by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, its informal style, its humor, and Crystal's humanity come through in the end. It's worth the brief time that it takes to read it.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Over the past several months, Dot Brovarney and I have been working on a project to bring a number of quality writers to the Ukiah Valley via Mendocino College and the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, an associate group of the Mendocino College Foundation. With seed money from the The Community Foundation of Mendocino County, we have been able to get organized for a two-day event in June 2007.

On Friday, June 1st, we will host Gary Soto for an evening reading/Q&A at the Little Theater. He will follow that with a morning activity on Saturday, June 2nd. That is when there will be a whole line-up of writers doing readings, workshops, and panel discussions. The other writers included are: Sarah Andrews, Ianthe Brautigan-Swensen, Armandt Brint, Armando Garcia-Davila, Jody Gehrman, Gerald Haslam, Jean Hegland, Hal Zina Bennett, David Smith-Ferri, Valerie Miner, Linda Noel, Jordan Rosenfeld, Rebecca Lawton, Dylan Schaffer, Dan Imhoff, and Mark Bittner.

Monday, December 04, 2006

California Girlby T. Jefferson ParkerHarperTorchHaving grown up in Southern California as a teenager, and during the time that T. Jefferson Parker visits in California Girl, I found it to be a fun read. In fact, this novel is better than many in the mystery genre, and Parker collected an Edgar Award for this outing.

It involves a family of brothers, the Beckers, who move into different fields as adults, but who are thrown into the midst of a mystery--who killed Janelle Vonn, a young woman that they knew as a small girl growing up. What Parker does best is give his characters enough personality and background that we come to like them and care about their situations. Andy is a reporter trying to follow the story, Nick is the cop trying to solve the crime, and David, who is a minister, becomes a bit of a suspect as he has had connections to Janelle as an adult and just prior to her death.

While Parker describes the Southern California milieu well, he does an even better job of creating a sense of menace from bad guys, a sense of the 1960s counterculture and drug dropouts, the racist undertones of America, and even a bit of the history of the times. He even tosses in a fight with a budding musician named Charlie Manson.

This book sent me to other titles by Parker, and I will write another commentary on one in the near future. California Girl is worth checking out.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

With allthenumerous plot elements that John Burdett juggles in his second installment with Royal Thai detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, he keeps the action moving, the narration sizzling with insight and humor, and world events all in check. This outing starts with the murder of a CIA operative in post 9/11 Thailand. On the surface, he is murdered by a prostitute who just happens to work for Jitpleecheep's mother and his superior, Captain Vikorn.

However, nothing is quite so simple and in a world where money buys many things, Jitpleecheep finds himself torn between his disire to be a good Buddhist and his yearnings for Chanya, his prime suspect. He then has to balance that against the wishes of his boss and his mother.

At times graphic in his description of violence, Burdett does potray Thailand as a complex place with many conflicting values. While it might not be for everyone, Bangkok Tattoo will teach farang (foreigners) a thing or two about place while entertaining them with a series of twists and turns that are as indelible as the best tattooo.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The Friends of the Mendocino College Library are holding a book sale on Friday, December 1st, at the Gymnasium at the same time as the Ceramics Club and the Horticulture program are selling items for the holidays. The Friends will be selling books, Videos, DVDs, and music CDs at the sale.

We hope you will stop by, buy some books, and help the Friends support the library programs such as readings and next summer's Litfest, as well as help buy new materials for the collection.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Poet Linda Noel will do a reading of her poetry at the Mendocino College Little Theater in the Lowery Library Building tonight at 7 PM. This free event is to celebrate National Native American Heritage Month and is sponsored by the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, an associate group of the Mendocino College Foundation.

Linda Noel is a Native Californian of the Koyungkowi tribe who grew up in Willits. The former Poet Laureate of Ukiah has presented her work at various venues across the western United States and has most recently been both a featured reader and workshop presenter at the Redwood Coast Writers Conference, the Watershed Project, The Conference of American Indians; Humboldt State University, and Santa Rosa Junior College to name a few. Her work has been published in a variety of magazines, journals and anthologies including The Dirt is Red Here, by Heyday Books. She will be included in the “Sing Me Your Story, Dance Me Home: Art and Poetry from Native California” exhibit based on the Heyday book and coordinated by the California Exhibition Resources Alliance. The exhibit will tour more than twelve museums and libraries across California, including the Grace Hudson Museum in December 2007.

Noel was first published in 1983 through Strawberry Press, NYC with a chapbook titled “Where You First Saw the Eyes of Coyote.” She is currently finalizing her manuscript titled “Mountain Stitch.” For more information, please phone (707) 468-3051 or visit the college web site at www.mendocino.edu. # # # #

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Mendocino College Celebrates National Native American Heritage Month with Linda Noel Reading Ukiah, CA - Poet Linda Noel will do a reading of her poetry at the Mendocino College Little Theater in the Lowery Library Building on Wednesday, November 8 at 7 PM. This free event is to celebrate National Native American Heritage Month and is sponsored by the Friends of the Mendocino College Library, an associate group of the Mendocino College Foundation.

Linda Noel is a Native Californian of the Koyungkowi tribe who grew up in Willits. The former Poet Laureate of Ukiah has presented her work at various venues across the western United States and has most recently been both a featured reader and workshop presenter at the Redwood Coast Writers Conference, the Watershed Project, The Conference of American Indians; Humboldt State University, and Santa Rosa Junior College to name a few.

Her work has been published in a variety of magazines, journals and anthologies including The Dirt is Red Here, by Heyday Books. She will be included in the “Sing Me Your Story, Dance Me Home: Art and Poetry from Native California” exhibit based on the Heyday book and coordinated by the California Exhibition Resources Alliance. The exhibit will tour more than twelve museums and libraries across California, including the Grace Hudson Museum in December 2007.

Noel was first published in 1983 through Strawberry Press, NYC with a chapbook titled “Where You First Saw the Eyes of Coyote.” She is currently finalizing her manuscript titled “Mountain Stitch.” For more information, please phone (707) 468-3051 or visit the college web site at www.mendocino.edu. # # # #

Monday, October 30, 2006

Roy Kesey’s novella is reminiscent of Jerzy Kosinki’s The Painted Bird as it deals with someone watching and living the horrors of war. While Kosinski focused on World War II, Kesey focuses on the more recent Serbian-Croatian conflict. Taking a young protagonist, Josko Banovic, who is anonymous in many ways while in school, he develops Banovic into an expert marksman and cold-blooded sniper. He is in the thick of war, but he is someone who kills from a distance.

Kesey also has several brief inter-chapters that act as fables and show us other people along the countryside and how the war changes and ravages them. These sections are especially poetic and dream-like.

As a reader moves deeper into the book, Josko appears to be in a dream-like state as he begins following a siren of sorts. At that same time, he searches for his sister Klara. Both quests are part of the tangled, hallucinatory world that Josko inhabits as the disintegration of his country and society continues. Brutal and brilliant, this novella captures the essence of what happens to those torn apart by war. Its title reveals itself by the time the journey is over. - J.Koetzner

Friday, October 27, 2006

Welcome! This is the launch for our Mendocino College Library's Reading Blog. I hope you will participate by posting reviews of books that you have read so that we create a dialogue about books that we are reading. There are no restrictions on genres, on how many reviews you write, and definitely no problem with announcing news about books by local authors, etc.

Let's create a community of readers who share what they read and let others know about books that are worth reading. In addition, let's post about readings by local authors so that we stay informed about the possibilities to hear writers as they read their work to audiences locally.

I should also mention that the college is hosting LitFest, a celebration of the written word on June 1-2, 2007. Watch the college web site and this blog for more information.